The Taste of Chicago

The city of Chicago website states that the Taste of Chicago is the nation’s premier outdoor food festival showcasing the diversity of Chicago’s dining community. Every summer since 1980, Chicago’s beautiful Grant Park on the city’s magnificent lakefront has been home to the world’s largest food festival.

Instead of dancing with yourself, join 97.9 WLUP for the Billy Idol concert on Saturday, July 9 at the Taste of Chicago! Here’s the info.

Jen heads to the Taste

Enjoy live podcast recording all weekend at the “Food For Thought” tent. Chicago celebrities including Kevin Matthews and Hot Doug Sohn are just a couple of local talent with podcasts featured at this stage. For more information, click here!

Steve Dahl Book Signing

Date: Friday, July 8
Time: 7:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. with an after party down the street until ???
Location: Co-Prosperity, Bridgeport

Join Steve Dahl and WLS for the signing of his book, Disco Demolition: The Night Disco Died, with Dave Hoekstra. Books WILL be available for purchase at the event. An exhibition of documentary photographs by Paul Natkin from the infamous evening also on display!

To capture the gestalt of the occasion, a soundtrack of disco and rock music from the period will be compiled by DJs Joe Bryl and Logan Bay.

Irish American Heritage Festival

From the website: Celebrate all things Irish at the 31st annual Irish American Heritage Festival.

Irish Fest is July 8, 9 and 10 and showcases the finest in local and international Irish and American music, dance and family activities. The festival is an indoor and outdoor fest; rain or shine, held on the grounds of the Center at 4626 North Knox Avenue, Chicago, and is one of its largest fundraisers.

Sunrise SUP YOGA

From the website: Practice under the rising sun for a magical SUP Yoga practice located at Montrose beach. Paddleboarding experience is required for this event – we will be on the water as the sun is rising overhead.

Includes all SUP equipment and SUP Yoga class.

This is a one day only event, only 6 spaces are available so register now to guarantee your space.

Meet at Kayak Chicago beach hut at least 15-20 minutes before. Registration is required for this event. Plenty of free on-site street parking available! Please arrive no later then 6:00am to participate.

Traffic Restrictions & Road Projects

Several street closures are in place for the Taste of Chicago until 4 p.m. Monday. Columbus is closed from Monroe to Balbo, and from Balbo to Roosevelt, according to the OEMC. Balbo remains open to traffic. Drivers are advised to take Lake Shore Drive on the east and State Street on the west to get around the Columbus closure.

Jackson is also closed from Michigan to Lake Shore Drive, and Congress is shut down from Columbus to Congress Parkway.

CTA and Public Transit Weekend Alerts

RED, ORANGE, GREEN, BROWN, BLUE LINESWednesday, July 6 – Sunday, July 10Increased Capacity and More Frequent Service for Taste of Chicago
Red LineWed to Fri, daily: Longer trains will operate between 95th/Dan Ryan and Howard until 12am next day. Trains from 95th/Dan Ryan will operate every 6 minutes from 6pm to 10pm.

Sat and Sun: Trains from 95th/Dan Ryan will operate every 6 minutes from 6:30pm to 10pm.

Orange Line Wed to Fri, daily: Longer trains will operate between Midway and the Loop, 10am to 11pm.Sat and Sun, daily: Longer trains will operate between Midway and the Loop, 9am to 12am next day.

Green LineWed to Fri, daily:Longer trains will operate between Harlem/Lake and Ashland-Cottage Grove/63rd, 9:30am to 2:30pm.

Brown LineWed to Fri, daily: Longer trains will operate between Kimball and the Loop, 10am to 11pm.Sat and Sun: Longer trains will operate between Kimball and the Loop, 9am to 12am next day.

Blue Line Wed to Fri, daily: Longer trains will operate between Forest Park and O’Hare until 12 am next day.Sat and Sun, daily: Longer trains will operate between Forest Park and O’Hare, 9am to 12am next day.

Why is service being changed?
Added service is being provided for the convenience of customers attending the 2016 Taste of Chicago.

BLUE LINE

Tuesday, July 5 at 9:00 p.m. to Tuesday, July 26 or completion

Forest Park-bound Trains Bypass Irving Park Station

How does this affect my trip?Forest Park-bound trains will not stop at Irving Park station.

For service from Irving Park station, take an O’Hare-bound train to Montrose and transfer to a Forest Park-bound train.

For service to Irving Park station, take a Forest Park-bound train to Addison and transfer to an O’Hare-bound train.

Consider using the adjacent Blue Line stations at Montrose and Addison, where trains in both directions will continue to stop.

The #78 Montrose bus connects with the Montrose Blue Line station and the #152 Addison bus connects with the Addison Blue Line station.

The #78, #152 and #80 Irving Park buses also connect with the Red and Brown lines farther east, the #82 Kimball/Homan bus connects with the Belmont Blue Line station, and the #56 Milwaukee bus connects with the Blue Line at Jefferson Park or Logan Square, and continues southeast into downtown. The Metra Union Pacific Northwest Line service to downtown is also available at Irving Park station, located a short walk west of the CTA Irving Park station.

(CHICAGO) The CTA and Metra are adding extra bus and train service beginning Wednesday for several events, including Taste of Chicago, the Crosstown Cup and the Gold Cup soccer matches at Soldier Field.

Beginning Wednesday, both CTA and Metra will add service to accommodate visitors to the Taste of Chicago in Grant Park.

Extra trains will operate on Metra’s BNSF line from Wednesday through Sunday, according to a statement from the transit agency. On Saturday and Sunday, extra trains will also run on the Milwaukee North and Milwaukee West lines.

Several trains across the system will also be making extra stops to accommodate riders to Chicago. For information, check www.metrarail.com.

The CTA will run longer trains on the Red, Blue, Brown, Orange, Green and Yellow lines from Wednesday through Sunday.

For the Cubs vs. White Sox series at Wrigley Field, CTA will provide extra service on the No. 80 Irving Park and No. 152 Addison buses between Friday and Sunday. On Friday only, northbound Red Line trains will run with increased frequency between 5-6 p.m.

Gold Cup soccer games will be played at Soldier Field on Thursday. The CTA will provide extra service on the No. 130 Museum Campus and No. 146 Inner Drive/Michigan Express buses from about 4:30 p.m. until one hour after the final game ends.

In addition, six CTA bus routes will be detoured due to closures downtown for Taste of Chicago, including the No. 2 Hyde Park Express, the No. 10 Museum of Science and Industry, the No. 6 Jackson Park Express, the No. 14 Jeffrey Jump, the No. 26 South Shore Express and the No. 28 Stony Island.

The CTA advises riders to load their Ventra cards ahead of the events to avoid long lines at vending machines, and allow extra travel time through the weekend.

Additionally, the entrance ramp at Roosevelt Road from the northbound Dan Ryan Expy. is closed for construction. The southbound entrance ramp remains open.

The Taste of Chicago will open in Grant Park Wednesday and will run through Sunday, according to the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. The festival will be open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

The OEMC recommends that Chicagoans to use public transportation to get around the city during the closures.

Chicago mayor and former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel apparently does.

Emanuel’s recent visit to the annual Taste of Chicago festival was enough to attract attention, but not for what he was eating. Instead, it was his dance moves that are quickly becoming an Internet sensation.

A YouTube user called “jwhousto422″ posted a video to YouTube showing the 53-year-old mayor thrusting his hips to Robin Thicke’s popular song, “Blurred Lines,” while taking off his tie and biting his lower lip.

Cartoon blogger Josh Fruhlinger tweeted the video, describing it as both “erotic” and “terrifying.”

This is not the first time that Emanuel, a former ballet dancer, succumbed to the rhythms of a catchy tune. The Atlantic Wire also unearthed a video of him swaying during Jennifer Hudson’s concert at the Taste in 2012.

(Emanuel was offered a scholarship to the Joffrey Ballet but decided to attend Sarah Lawrence College instead).

Mayor Emmanuel had to scale back the Taste of Chicago this year, from 10 days to five, due to budget cuts. Perhaps the mayor’s moves will be enough to attract more visitors next year?